OTC help for an itchy kitty?

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Melanie and Smokey

Melanie and Smokey

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My poor little boy has been trying to outrun his tail or chew it off all morning. It seem that he's got a case of really itchy skin. I think it started during the night because he was tearing around the bed quite a few times. Is there some human meds I can give him that will help make him more confortable over the weekend until we can call our vet on Monday or do we need to pack him up and head for the ER.

He's about 11 month's old, 8lbs. We currently have him on prednesone in an ear cream, giving to every other day for stomatitis. He most likely has calicivirus too. He wasn't tested but be was a cagemate of Avie's at the Humane Society and got really sick while still there. Avie got our older girls sick after we adopted. Smokey got the sickest and tested positive for calici and the vet said that was most likely what Avie had been carrying around. He has a lot of the residual issues we see in Smokey and with the stomatitis, its likely he has the calici too.

I think I have seen that people give their cats Benedryl, but I don't know how to determine the dosage. My SIL is a vet,but she is not answering her phone. We have had horrific experiences at the ER vet so I'd like to avoid going there unless we can't get him calmed without a trip there.
 
until you get an answer on the Benadryl --

For my itchy cat - we use the neosporin (triple antibiotic) ointment with Pain Reliever

the pain reliever kind of numbs the area. (gotta get it on the skin though - which can be hard)
 
Fish oil sounds very good for him considering his other issues. I will talk to the vet about that. Thank you for that recommendation!

Vet SIL did not think that adding in a new med while he is on others is a good idea and recommended increasing his prednesone dose back up to once a day until we can see our vet next week. I had grabbed him and gave him his dose this morning in hopes it would help and he seems to have settled down a lot. I am going to pick up Benedryl while I am out shopping this afternoon in case the Pred doesn't hold it off enough.
 
For the stomatitis .... have you joined the yahoo group for stomatitis kitties and beans? My Yoda has caudal stomatitis, probably due to the immune system and a hemobart infection. He currently takes a cocktail of drugs developed by the Dallas Animal Dental clinic. It is still in the FDA trial phase, but the clinic works with your local vet with blood work and sends you the cocktail. I mix it in Yoda's wet food once a day. Within 4 days he was eating regular food again, and a month later has no inflammation at all. I don't know if the calici virus changes things for you guys, but it is definitely worth a try. From what I have heard, the longer kitty is on steroids, the less likely they will do well with a full mouth tooth extraction. Yoda still has all his teeth btw.
 
I hadn't even heard of the group Kelly. We are just starting the process with him. Since it doesn't seem severe yet we are probably not as agressive as we should be on it. It seems hard to even imagine getting to the point of pulling that little boy's teeth when he is so young and other than odor and inflammation at the gum line there doesn't seem to be a lot of physical signs.

I see two Yahoo groups for it, one Feline - Stomatitis and the other Feline - LPGS, is there one you recommend? It looks like the the Stomatitis one is the most active.

He slept HARD most of the day. I would have been worried about him sleeping that hard for so long if I didn't want him to stay asleep. Hopefully he will have a better night tonite.

Well he's back to play with the mouse pointer so my typing time is up. Touchscreen monitor - very bad idea.
 
Feline-Stomatitis is the one I am a part of. If the steroids are helping the inflammation and a dental has not helped things, then it may be best to nip it in the bud before the inflammation gets so bad it goes down his throat and threatens his quality of life. It got to that stage with Yoda very quickly unfortunately. You know the dangers of steroids. I highly recommend the drug cocktail for this and talking to Jim at the Dallas Animal Dental Clinic! :-D
 
I send a request to join to that one last night. We only adopted him the beginning of March so the steroids/AB combo we are just finishing has been our first run at it. The weird thing, and what makes it hard for me to get much out of a lot of the reading, is his teeth are perfect looking, no buildup or anything - it is all in his gums. It seems like most cases involve other dental issues and the immune systems reaction to that.

I'm writing down the name of the Dental Clinic to ask the vet next week if she knows anything about it. She is very good about looking into further treatment options for us. I will also read up on it before I go.
 
Yoda had dentals every 6 months and his teeth looked good too. But once the depo shots from his previous owners fully wore off, his mouth got horrible. The depo shots are what gave him diabetes, so we could no longer do steroids. Most vets have not heard of the Dallas Animal Dental Clinic. They are in the trial phase on the meds and seeking official FDA approval for mass production and administering to vets. I found out about the clinic due to the yahoo stomatitis group. My vet is now singing their praises and telling other practitioners about the cocktail because of how well it has worked for us. The cocktail was initially developed by Dr. Wiggs and he worked with Jim Seahorn. Dr. Wiggs was the founder of modern animal dentistry - there is a fair amount about him on the web. He died in 2008 I believe, and Jim has been continuing his work. They cannot divulge the ingredients just yet because it is still in the trial stage for the FDA and I believe they are still working on a patent for the cocktail.

There are many different causes of stomatits for kitties. The Calici virus is a definite known trigger. At the very least, the Dallas clinic can work with your vet on a treatment plan for your kitty since they have dealt with hundreds of stomatitis cases.
 
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